A website is a set of linked documents and assets with shared attributes, such as related topics, a similar design, or a shared purpose. Dreamweaver is a site creation and management tool, so you can use it to create individual documents and complete websites.

In Dreamweaver the term “site” refers to a local or remote storage location for the documents that belong to a website. A Dreamweaver site provides a way to organize and manage all of your web documents, upload your site to a web server, track and maintain your links, and manage and share files. You should define a site to take full advantage of Dreamweaver features.

A Dreamweaver site consists of as many as three parts, or folders, depending on your development environment and the type of website you are developing:

Local root folder

Stores the files you’re working on. Dreamweaver refers to this folder as your “local site.” This folder can be on your local computer or it can be on a network server. If you work directly on the server, Dreamweaver uploads files to the server every time you save.

Remote folder

Stores your files for testing, production, collaboration, and so on. Dreamweaver refers to this folder as your “remote site” in the Files panel. Typically, your remote folder is on the computer where your web server is running.

Together, the local and remote folders enable you to transfer files between your local hard disk and web server, making it easy to manage files in your Dreamweaver sites.

Testing server folder

The folder where Dreamweaver processes dynamic pages.

For a tutorial on defining a Dreamweaver site, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0145.